Not a proud day to be a Canadian
Vancouver is ablaze. Rioting in the streets. “Canadians rioting?” people in other parts of the world ask. And at that moment you see the flicker of respect for Canadian character disappear from their eyes. You know then that you will never again be able to convince people that Canadians are uniquely different from Americans. And […]
Kibbutz by the Sea
Last week, standing on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, I watched as the sun began its slow descent into the sea. The air was quiet, the colours of the kibbutz slowly changing into an evening hue. Fourteen years. Fourteen years mixed in the salty air, the sound of seagulls, the faint sound of a tractor […]
You want to leave Moskva!
“You want to leave Moskva!”I can still hear Boris’ words, echoing in my head, the sweat running down the small of my back. Even though more than ten years have passed, it seems like it just happened yesterday. And I remember all this because a friend asked me if I had ever been to Russia.It […]
Where does your loyalty lie?
It’s the Winter Olympics 2014 and we’re sitting down to watch the Gold Medal hockey final. All of Israel is talking about the unbelievable meteoric rise of Team Israel from total anonymity to becoming a leading contender in the hockey world. Years of dodging Katyushas on the only Olympic-size ice rink in Israel alongside the […]
Home is where the Heart is
“There is no place like home! There is no place like home! ” Dorothy exclaims, clicking her heels together three times, as she is magically transported back to the Kansas farm she calls home.I grew up in the same house in Scarborough, a Toronto suburb, for the first 18 years of my life (minus the […]
Google ate my homework
Google has just come out with its Chromebook, an inexpensive lightweight laptop which runs on Google’s Chrome operating system. This operating system connects the user to the Google cloud on the Internet where every user will have access to countless applications and more than ample room to save data. Moreover, this data can be accessed from any […]
The Canadian Passport Blues
I’ve got the blues and they’re definitely Canadian. This all started with the realization that I will soon have to apply for a new Canadian passport. One wouldn’t think that this should cause too much anxiety, and it didn’t, until fairly recently. There was a time, when the Canadian Embassy was still on Hayarkon Street […]
Do We Deserve to be Happy?
Today is Memorial Day in Israel, in remembrance of fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. Ceremonies are held all over the country: in public places, at gravesides, in the privacy of the home. And as families and friends mourn, the country is shrouded in quiet reflection. And then suddenly, at 8 p.m. in the evening, […]
How many political parties are needed to run (ruin) a nation?
Canadians woke up yesterday to a new political reality. The Conservatives won a commanding majority, the Liberals were almost annihilated, the NDP almost tripled their seats in the House and became the official opposition for the first time, and the Bloc Quebecois more or less disappeared from the political map. Israelis can only look on with envy at a […]
Am I an expat, really?
It took me over 35 years of living in Israel before I took on the name of expat. But can I really claim this title after having lived abroad for so many years? If it weren’t for this blog, I probably wouldn’t have adopted this title even now. In my online search for similar ramblings […]